“We all have it comin’, kid.” Back to Clint Eastwood, folks! And there’ll be more from him to come. Here, it’s a legendary gem he not only starred in, but directed—the grand deconstruction of the Western genre itself: Unforgiven. Some call it “the greatest Western of all time”. I wouldn’t go that far. Frankly, […]

“‘Let them handle it,’ Mr. Beckworth? Captured weaponry: From Red China—Chi-Com K-50. Chinese Communists. SKS Soviet-made Carbine. Russian Communists. Ammunition? Czechoslovakian-made. Czech Communists. No sir, Mr. Beckworth. It doesn’t take a lead weight to fall on me, or a hit from one of those weapons, to recognize that what’s involved here is Communist domination of […]

“‘No’ means ‘no’. Isn’t that what we tell women? Do men deserve less?” Most great films end up remembered—many deservedly cherished as the classics they are. Some great films, however, end up for the most part forgotten—underrated gems, waiting to be rediscovered. We scour though yard sales and flea markets, and stumble on movies […]

“Be their hero, Clark. Be their monument—be their angel—be anything they need you to be! Or be none of it. You don’t owe this world a thing. You never did.” (Bear with me for a bit, folks—this prologue’s a bit long. Believe me, it’s important.) Well, dear readers, I knew I was going to […]

By Eric M. Blake and Ronald A. Rowe Team Iron Man: “There’s no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! …If we can’t accept limitations—if we’re boundary-less—then we’re no better than the bad guys.” Team Cap: “What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there’s […]

“The price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it’s a price I’m willing to pay.” I’ve been focusing on superhero films a lot, in this series—and will continue to, for the foreseeable future. With good reason, too: As I’ve said often, ever since Christopher Nolan gave us the Dark Knight Trilogy, […]

“You start running, they’ll never let you stop. You stand up, you push back. They can’t say ‘no’ forever, right?” All righty then—I haven’t added a superhero film to the list for a while now. So in honor of July, let’s go head-on to Capt. Steve Rogers. Now, just to get this out of the […]

“Mr. Chief Justice—and may it please the Court—the ‘Cold War’ is not just a phrase, Your Honor. It’s not just a figure of speech. Truly, a battle is being fought between two competing views of the world. I contend that Rudolph Ivanovich Abel—Colonel Abel, as he was called even by the men who arrested him—is […]

There is a moment in Spider-Man: Homecoming, where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is at the end of his rope. No pun intended. He’s broken, and reduced to tearfully calling for help…fearing, at last, that it’s all over—that he’s failed: at the mission, at his life, at everything. And then…he finds himself looking into his reflection. […]